Ciena's Optical Network Management - SaaS Platform.
Product: B2B SaaS application for telecommunication providers.
Goal: Enable efficient creation, management, and live monitoring of telecom/submarine optical networks, optimizing for capacity and cost.
User research: Zoom for user interviews
User flow: Miro and Lucidchart
Design work: Figma, Sketch, some AI support
Product design outcome
Time for network creation
85 %
Network error and outage in the real world
92 %
Equipment and network capacity
46 %
Equipment sales
23 %
My Role & Responsibilities
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UX Designer responsible for user research (with network engineers/planners), information architecture, workflow definition, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, and visual design input.
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Key contributor to taking the product from initial concept through development and iteration.
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Creating and managing SaaS design system
The Process / Approach
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Research: Conducted interviews and workflow analysis with network engineers.
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Define: Mapped complex user journeys for network planning, provisioning, and monitoring; defined information architecture.
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Design: Created wireframes and interactive prototypes focusing on network topology visualization, dashboard design, and data visualization for equipment comparison. Iterated based on feedback.
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Testing: Performed usability testing on prototypes with target users.
Research Process
A total of 10 users where interviewed, with a questions related to their day to day network planning process which was quiet manual. The answers which I got from, was added to the use cases in Jira to be considered when we eventually designed for them.
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Conducted in-depth interviews and contextual inquiries with target users (Network Engineers, Planners, Operators) to understand their day-to-day tasks, goals, and frustrations with existing tools/processes.
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Collaborated closely with Ciena Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and stakeholders to deeply understand optical networking concepts, technical constraints, and business objectives.
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Analyzed existing competitor tools and internal documentation to identify gaps, opportunities, and established mental models within the domain.
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Performed task analysis and workflow mapping of current network creation, management, and monitoring processes to pinpoint key areas for improvement and simplification.
Pencil sketch/low fi design
